Leadership seems to be lost these days. What should we be looking for in our leaders? 

There is not much debate around leadership anymore. The fact is widely acknowledged that leadership is at an all-time low, despite having more written about it in the past 30 years than all the millennia of human history combined.  If there was a hall of fame for worst leaders, then we’d certainly have some prime candidates as we begin the 21st Century. Somewhere along the way, our leaders have lost their way. Followers stopped holding their leaders accountable and our culture is not better for it.

There are still great leaders out there, but sadly many of them are not running for public office, being promoted as generals (we do still have some great generals) or sitting in positions of national influence. If you’ve ever been led by a great leader, then you know that everything rises and falls on leadership.

6 Things that are Essential to Excellent Leaders

1- Credible & Believable. If a leader is not credible, then they are unbelievable! Literally, if you are trying to convince yourself that the leader in question is trustworthy, then that leader has already been discredited in your mind. Rhetoric is the art of popular and persuasive speech. As a discerning follower, you must get beyond a leader’s rhetoric and assess their motivation. True inspiration does not come from solely passionate and persuasive speech. True inspiration comes from your assessment of credibility of the speaker’s motivation. Credibility is always born out of substance. Beware of leaders who peddle promises without substance. Anyone call tell you what you want to hear, very few will tell you what you need to hear–it’s the credible leader that will do the latter.

The ancient Greeks called this credibility a speaker’s ethos or spirit. You must ask yourself, “Does my spirit really connect, identify or testify to their spirit?” Each person has intuition until they quit using it or allow someone to numb it. When you evaluate a leader as credible, you have judged them believable.

If people don’t believe you, then ultimately they won’t follow you. So, either you have to bribe them, brainwash them or bash them to get them to follow you. This is what poor leaders do. Great leaders steer far away from this pattern of behavior. Poor leaders are always fearful of losing control, so they go to great lengths to protect their ability to control their followers. Great leaders are believed and beloved by their followers and they are willingly followed.

2- Track Record of Being Right and Getting it Right. There are no perfect leaders presently inhabiting the earth. There are good & effective leaders and there are poor & ineffective leaders. The question is not if they make mistakes, but rather, how they respond to their mistakes. I always teach that some mistakes are healthy (just not the lawsuit kind, the kind that cost a lot of money or the kind that loose your life). However, an assessment of leadership is to ask “Has this person learned from their mistakes?”

Leaders don’t always come out and say, “Yesterday I made a mistake, today I will correct it.” That would be nice, but maybe a little naive. However, does the leader at some point own up to the error and make the needed adjustments and corrections? Especially, as they progress, do they stop making that error.

3- Willing to Take a an Unpopular Position based on Convictions. Leaders with conviction have friends with convictions. You want to see the measure of a leader: look at the convictions of their friends. Convictions are deeply held beliefs that identify character and determine direction. Convictionless people are stringless balloons–they float whichever way the wind blows them.

Great leaders work hard to avoid the popularity contest. Great leaders take a position and hold it.  The effective leaders take a stand for what is right, not what is popular. Because true convictions are based on absolute, moral law, then the great leader will stand firm, despite popular opinion and pundits turning against him/her.

Convictions breed consistency. Great leaders are highly consistent people. Why? Because they are not trying to figure out what people want and then give it to them. They have a message to proclaim and allow people to see the consistency, transparency and candor that their personal convictions illicit in the life of  that leader. Many of our leaders today, not only can’t pick a position, they won’t pick a position. Moreover, because moral law has been disregarded in the court of public opinion, they take the popular position.

One of my favorite proverbs is a statement Jesus said, “Wisdom is proved right by her children.”  Every leader has a track record. Examine the track record. Wisdom and right decisions are always linked. A wise leader more often than not gets it right–whatever it is! (Just for the record Jesus never got it wrong). Always look at a leader’s “children” or what or whom they are producing. Good trees bear good fruit. Bad trees bear bad fruit or no fruit.

4- Understands and Applies Honor. Honor is a term that we rarely use anymore. We used to see our country as a place worthy of honor. We have holidays to honor those who have sacrificed and shed blood. Honor is a good thing. To honor someone or something is to esteem that thing above others. Historically, our nation has honored the brave, the selfless and those that have paid the highest sacrifice.

Leaders that understand honor, have the habit of giving it and showering it on those around them. Poor leaders, selfish leaders gravitate towards honoring themselves. These are self-centered, ego-driven leaders who are more about manipulating those that follow them and rewarding those who ensure their continued power. This is because they don’t like to share honor. Watch who leaders place around them “on stage.” Do they place self-less people or self-centered people? Do they put forth honorable people or dishonorable people?

Early Christians were commanded by the Apostle Paul to “outdo one another is showing honor” (Romans 12:10). To show honor demonstrates a reverence, a respect and a sacredness that is rapidly departing from our nation and our culture. Without honor a nation, a people will decay. Dishonor decays a nation. Demanded honor breeds tyranny.

5- True to their Word. Leaders who can’t keep their word, really can’t be trusted. Truth is not expedient for a leader. Truth is a non-negotiable for a leader. Sadly, our culture not only allows dishonest leaders, but whole-heartedly embraces them.

My father taught me to keep my word, despite what it cost me. Many games or fun things I missed because I had a prior commitment. Followers need to demand that leaders commit. A committed leader is a leader that is dedicated to the cause, the organization and the mission. A person’s word used to be their bond. A bond is a seal and a restriction. This bond of trust seals in the mission and restricts the distraction.  A leader that keeps his/her word is a leader that is demonstrating that they are both responsible and can be trusted. A leader that can’t keep their word is demonstrating that are irresponsible, looking for convenience and untrustworthy.

Trust is glue. Glue is what bonds things together. Trust is the bond that unites leaders and followers together.

“Work Hard. Do your best. Keep your word. Never get too big for your britches. Trust in God. Have no fear; and Never forget a friend.”

~Harry S. Truman

Leaders who get “too big for their britches” are arrogant leaders. Arrogance is blindness. Blindness leads people into ditches, snares and pits. Humility keeps a leader in the right-fitting pair britches. Humility makes a good mirror. Pride is a foggy mirror.

6- Trusts in God. There is no greater thing a leader can do than to put his/her trust in the Almighty Creator. When a leader recognizes that they too are under the authority of God, then a level and measure of humility enter in to that leader’s life that will affect their entire organization and sphere of influence. Leaders that recognize that God is supreme and has given man absolute, moral law truly begin to understand justice, judgment and mercy. Our nation’s greatest leaders were unashamed to evoke God’s blessing and publicly express their belief in God and the Bible.

“If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under.”

~Ronald Reagan 

We, as followers, must throw off the shackles of ignorance and passivity and demand that our leaders act like leaders instead of tyrants. Leaders who have credibility, who get their decisions right, have deep-seated convictions, act honorably, keep their word and trust God. We, as followers, must look beyond the popularity contest and the posturing contest to discern what is truly motivating and guiding that leader. Leadership doesn’t have to die with an election. If everything rises and falls on leadership, then let us ask God to raise up leaders who will raise the nation, the culture, the community and the home back up.

“Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be.”

– Dwight D. Eisenhower